Determination of a position of an organ within a patient may be relevant for various reasons, such as for enabling targeting delivery of radiation to treat pathological anatomies such as tumors or lesions within the organ. This may in particular be relevant for organs which may move and/or change shape due to breathing.
In the reference US 2009/0175406 A1 a method and apparatus for tracking a pathological anatomy within a patient's body is described. A data model of a skin surface of the patient's body may be acquired using light reflected from the skin surface. The data model can be matched with skin surfaces reconstructed and/or interpolated from four-dimensional (4D) diagnostic imaging data, such as 4D CT data, to determine a temporal phase of the patient's respiratory motion. The identified temporal phase may then be used in conjunction with the diagnostic imaging data to identify a location of the pathological anatomy within the patient's body.